Does selfishness evolve? Ask a cannibal
March 25, 2021
Biologists have used one of nature's most prolific cannibals to show how social structure affects the evolution of selfish behavior. Researchers showed they could drive the evolution of less selfish behavior in Indian meal moths with habitat changes that forced larval caterpillars to interact more often with siblings.
Corals may need their predators' poop
March 23, 2021
Fish that dine on corals may pay it forward with poop. Rice University marine biologists found high concentrations of living symbiotic algae in the feces of coral predators on reefs in Mo'orea, French Polynesia.
Seven research teams win Carbon Hub funding
March 8, 2021
Carbon Hub, Rice University's zero-emissions research initiative, has awarded seed grants for seven projects that will rapidly advance its vision for transforming the oil and gas sector into a leading provider of both clean hydrogen energy and solid carbon products that can be used in place of materials with large carbon footprints.
Christopher Tunnell wins NSF CAREER Award
March 5, 2021
Rice University computational astroparticle physicist Christopher Tunnell is getting help in his search for the nature of the universe through a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award.
Camera traps reveal newly discovered biodiversity relationship
March 3, 2021
In one of the first studies of its kind, an analysis of camera-trap data from 15 wildlife preserves in tropical rainforests revealed a previously unknown relationship between the biodiversity of mammals and the forests in which they live.
Bottling the world's coldest plasma
February 28, 2021
Rice University physicists have discovered a way to trap the world's coldest plasma in a magnetic bottle, a technological achievement that could advance research into clean energy, space weather and astrophysics.
Quantum quirk yields giant magnetic effect, where none should exist
February 26, 2021
In a twist befitting the strange nature of quantum mechanics, physicists have discovered the Hall effect — a characteristic change in the way electricity is conducted in the presence of a magnetic field — in a nonmagnetic quantum material to which no magnetic field was applied.